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Alexandra Tomalonis
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The Many Faces of Sleeping Beauty

Alexandra Tomalonis
Special to The Washington Post
February 18, 2002; Page C5

"Sleeping Beauty" -- with its bureaucratic ineptitude and buck-passing, crises of protocol and balance of power, and eventual resolution of harmony through goodness and mercy -- is a perfect ballet for Washington. The Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet's mammoth revival of the turn-of-the-last-century production had jelled by Friday (after a messy opener), and the weekend was full of good dancing. So much care has been taken with the sets and costumes, the restoration of trimmed mime scenes and processions, it seems odd that each ballerina dances the role of Princess Aurora, the sleeping beauty of the title, in a different style. Friday night, Svetlana Zakharova was more the Visiting Guest Ballerina From the Future than a fairy tale princess. She's a gorgeous dancer; her ronds de jambe described perfect circle after perfect circle. But her gigantic extensions are jarring here; Aurora just shouldn't spend a lot of time whacking the side of her face with her leg. Zakharova also seemed to dance in her own little world, ignoring her parents, the rest of the court and her suitors.

Zhanna Ayupova's beautifully phrased and modulated dancing made the fairy tale come alive Saturday night. Her balances in the fabled "Rose" Adagio were thrilling, but more important, her first-act solo was danced for and with her suitors, not as an exhibition piece, and her Aurora grew from act to act, delivering a royally confident grand pas de deux in Act 3, with Andrian Fadeyev.

The other Auroras -- Natalya Sologub (Saturday afternoon, with Anton Korsakov, who danced his solo beautifully) and Irma Nioradze (yesterday afternoon) -- were able, though Sologub was a bit callow and Nioradze's dancing was laden with ballerina mannerisms.

It wasn't until yesterday afternoon that Aurora woke to a worthy Prince Desire. Danila Korsuntsev was a strong partner and danced his solo cleanly, but he also had princely bearing and was the only one who could carry off the Act 2 costume, with its long, curly wig and floppy-brimmed picture-book hat. Among the many fine performances in supporting roles this weekend, Irina Zhelonkina's delicate phrasing and Vasily Sherbakov's soaring jumps in the Bluebird pas de deux yesterday afternoon were superb.

Presiding over 3 1/2 hours of this grand fashion show and dance spectacle, its squadrons of courtiers, fairies and fairy tale characters, as well as a half-dozen superbly subtle mimes, is the Lilac Fairy. Daria Pavlenko was a gentle and sophisticated Lilac on Friday and Saturday nights; Veronika Part was lush and regal at other performances. Auroras come, Auroras go, but the Lilac Fairy, with her heeled shoes and blossomed helmet and staff, has survived. It's her sweet face, beaming love and hope, and blessing yet another new century as Tchaikovsky's glorious music swells in its apotheosis, that is the ballet's transcendent moment and its enduring memory.